Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-06-02
A NOTABLE OPERA-HOUSE.
The New Orleans Theater In the Time
OF Old Hickory.


OF Old Hickory.
The most splendid of all these places
Of amusement was the old Orleans
Street Theater. built in 1878, which,
with its famous ball rooms adjoining,
is associated with many joyous memo
ries that cluster around the old French
quarter. There was a row Of boxes,
called baignoires, on level with the
parquet which were usually occup ed
by the middle classes. The prem. eres,
or first tier, with its balcony and boxes,
was monopolized by the most exclus We
and fashionable portion of the popula-
ton. In the secondes. or second ter,
the elite of the colored inhabitants d s.
played themselves, and a still lower
strata found an airy elevat on in a gal
lery above these. The opera was sup
ported by liberal subscriptions, and
nearly all the boxes of the first tier
were taken by the year. Two grand
and two comic operas were given each
week, the other nights being devoted to
vaudevilles by the dramatic portion of
the company. Although it was the
correct thing for all society to be pres
ent at each operate performances, yet
Tuesdays and Saturdays were especi-
ally fash enable nights when not to be
seen at the opera was to have comm T.
ted social mistake. These occasions
were particularly brilliant. because
every one appeared in full evening
dress; the first tier sparkled with the
Jewels of the creole ladies, the second
tier was no less magnificent in the SUI
perb apparel of the quadroon women;
and even in the parquet the men wore
dress coats and white kid gloves.
The aisles between the boxes were COM
fortably wide. so that the gay gallants
| of society could approach the seats of
their lady friends between the acts of
the opera, often considered equivalent
to party call. during an evening.
Visitors to New Orleans from other cities
were enthusiastic about the beauty of
the creole women and their exquis ite
| taste in dress as seen in the old French
| opera-house. The whole scene was en-
tirely French and presented brilliant
coup d'9n never before equaled in
America. The aud euces OF seventy
years ago were intellectual. cultivated.
and highly critical. and they exacted
more absolute perfection in the rendi-
ton of grand opera than is often met
with now.
The adjacent ballroom. the Sale
Il Orleans, was the scene of numbcrless
fashionable and select entertainments.
STORIES of their elegant magnificence
are still current among the old resi-
tents of the French quarter. No I'M
! married woman ever appeared at the
opera. neither at public or pr vate
| balls, without chaperon. a custom
which still prevails among both creole
and American residents Of New Or
leans. When fashion abandoned the
Sale d'Orleaus AS favored place for
ociety entertainments the old room
began to resound with less decorous
mirth. for the beautiful. sensuous quad
room women selected it as the scene of
their famous balls. Tradition las also
whispered of these wild orgies and of
he many ducls born of them; for, alas!
be sa d, though the women were yell
low, the men who attended them. both
strangers and residents. were all
white.
The Orleans theater was burned to
the ground in 1868 and has never been
rebuilt; the bathrooms, which once
looked on so much innocent gayety,
afterward on so much glded N. are
now. by strange caprice of fate, oc-
cupied us a convent By sisterhood OF
quadroon nuns. san Francisco Call